Australia joins China’s top table

The Prime Minister’s visit to China began on Friday in back­biting over Canberra’s neglect of this crucial relationship. It ended with a permanent invitation from China to return to talk about things that matter. The agreement between
Julia Gillard
and Chinese Premier
Li Keqiang
means guaranteed annual meetings of leaders, prime minister to premier, minister to minister and defence official to defence official.

There has never been much doubt about Australia’s economic importance to China: we supply half its imported iron ore, one-quarter of its imported coal and we are the biggest single supplier of natural gas. But the annual leaders’ meetings now move Australia in China’s eyes beyond just commercial ties; beyond a mere appendage to the United States, to being viewed as a strategic and diplomatic player in our own right.

As China grows, it impinges on more and more global issues. The agreement means Australia is now in the top rank of countries that China talks to about such matters. Only the European Union, Russia, the UK, Germany and in a more elevated form, the US, share this level of confidences with China. However, it was a deal that could have been done many years ago and it comes after several false starts on the Australian side under both the Howard and Rudd governments.

The regular top-level meetings will greatly increase the chances of other one-off deals being concluded, such as the sputtering free-trade agreement talks. The work done since 2005 means that abandoning the FTA talks now would be a very unwelcome setback.

But getting the kind of robust agreement that the Prime Minister talked about this week means a lot of vested interests not just between, but within the two countries on agriculture, foreign investment and other areas, have to be reconciled.

A likely new Coalition government, with some senior figures keen and others very lukewarm, adds another layer of complexity. However, China has had to learn to live with many vagaries in Australian politics and it will likely deal with the September election result, too.